Effect of different levels of dietary Urtica dioica leaf powder on growth performance, small intestine morphology and ascites indicators in broiler chickens grown in Shahrekord

In the current research, the effect of different levels of dietary Urtica dioica leaf powder was investigated on growth performance, small intestine morphology and ascites indicators in broiler chickens reared in Shahrekord. A total of 240 one-day old male Ross 308 broiler chicks were used in a completely randomized design with 4 treatments and 4 replicates of 15 birds in each pen in an experimental period for 42 days. The experimental treatments included control group (without Urtica dioica leaf powder) and three levels of Urtica dioica leaf powder (0, 0.5, 1, and 1.5%). The results of this experiment showed that the dietary inclusion of Urtica dioica leaf powder improvement in body weight gain and feed conversion ratio (P